World Goth Day 2019: Black Raspberry Mud Cake

Happy World Goth Day, everyone!

(wishing someone a happy day isn't very goth, is it? How about gloomy World Goth Day?)

So, it rolls around again. Pretty much every year since I started this blog I've done a World Goth Day post, and it's kinda difficult to work within such a restricting colour scheme: black, white, grey, and dark bloody tones like red and purple. Maybe next year, I'll focus less on colour and more on cultural iconography.

I thought this year I'd do something with red wine: I tried making a red wine and white chocolate ganache, which tasted incredible but looked a very strange colour. I also made a red wine chocolate cake mixture, which tasted amazing when it was raw in the bowl, but once it was cooked it tasted kinda beery and the red colour had cooked out.

So, this year I decided to go completely black on black! I used very dark chocolate in the ganache, and dark chocolate in the cake mixture. Oddly enough, though, once the dark chocolate was cooked in the cake it turned a deep red colour. It must have reacted with the other ingredients, but I'm not complaining! It was a happy coincidence.

INGREDIMENTS

For the chocolate cake

3 medium eggs

4 ounces (115 grammes) caster sugar

2 ounces (55 grammes) brown sugar

3 ounces (85 grammes) butter

3 ounces (85 grammes) dark chocolate

5 ounces (140 grammes) white plain flour: spelt, wheat, or gluten free

Salt, to taste

1 ounce (30 grammes) cocoa powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

3 fluid ounces (90 millilitres) hot strong coffee

Vanilla essence

About 4 or 5 ounces (115 to 140 grammes) seedless raspberry jam

For the ganache

9 ounces (250 grammes) dark chocolate, at least 60% cocoa

3 ounces (85 grammes) unsalted butter

3 ounces (85 grammes) caster sugar

3 fluid ounces (90 millilitres) water

Black food colouring

METHOD

First, make the cake

• Preheat the oven to 170C (340F, Gas Mk.3), and grease an 8 inch (20 centimetre) with butter, and dust with caster sugar.
• In a small bowl or jug, melt the butter and chocolate together in a double boiler or in the microwave on low power. Make a slurry with the cocoa powder and coffee. In another bowl, mix together the flour and baking soda.
• In a large mixing bowl, whip the eggs and sugars together with three pinches of salt (one pinch for each egg) with an electric hand mixer until pale yellow, thickly foamy, and about doubled in size.
• Gradually beat in the melted butter and chocolate, and the vanilla essence. Sieve in half the flour mixture, then fold with a rubber spatula or wire balloon whisk until half mixed in. Fold in the coffee until, again, half folded. Sieve in the last of the flour and fold through completely.
• Pour into the tin, and bake on the centre shelf of the preheated oven for about 35 to 45 minutes. Check the doneness with a cocktail stick. You know the drill! 
• Once baked and cooled, level and split in half. Fill and coat with a thin coat of raspberry jam. chill thoroughly for about 2 hours before icing.

Then, make the ganache

• Chop the chocolate with a serrated knife into small pieces, and put it in a heatproof mixing bowl.
• In a saucepan, or in a jug in the microwave on high heat, melt and dissolve the water, sugar, and butter together until it boils and there are no more granules of sugar left.
• Pour the hot, buttery syrup over the chocolate and allow to sit and melt for about 3 minutes. With a wire baloon whisk, slowly mix the ganache together. Allow to cool completely and set into a spreadable consistency, about an hour or two. For best time management, make the ganache while the jam coating is setting. You can also colour it black, if you like.
• Ice the cake carefully with the ganache, so the jam doesn't get too disturbed. I made mine all swirly.